(Phys.org)—Graphene has long shown potential for use in electronics, but difficulties in producing the material to a high enough quality has so far prevented the commercialisation of graphene-based devices.

(Phys.org) -- Researchers in Germany appear to have found a way to create a monolithic (integrated) graphene transistor, using a lithographic process applied to silicon carbide, a breakthrough that could lead to computers ...

A team of Case Western Reserve University engineers has designed and fabricated integrated amplifier circuits that operate under extreme temperatures  up to 600 degrees Celsius - a feat that was previously impossible.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mitsubishi Electric has announced it has a new motor system for electric vehicles with impressive gains in reduced size and efficiency. The EV motor system is the smallest of its kind, according to the company ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and IBM Research - Zurich have fabricated an ultrasharp silicon carbide tip possessing such high strength that it is thousands ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Fundamental chemical processes in predecessors of our solar system are now a bit better understood: An international team led by Peter Hoppe, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, ...

Alternative lighting is emerging as a potent method to combat the energy crisis. Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting technologies could provide an innovative way to save energy and make wasteful lighting obsolete.

A discovery by physicists at UC Santa Barbara may earn silicon carbide -- a semiconductor commonly used by the electronics industry -- a role at the center of a new generation of information technologies designed to exploit ...

Plug-in electric vehicles represent a new direction for environmentally friendly transportation. Unfortunately, plug-in electric cars are currently grid-tie power electronics that can require large quantities of energy -- ...

Silicon carbide

Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with a chemical formula SiC. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. Silicon carbide powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very hard ceramics which are widely used in applications requiring high endurance, such as car brakes and ceramic plates in bulletproof vests. Electronic applications of silicon carbide as light emitting diode and detector in early radios have been demonstrated around 1907, and nowadays SiC is widely used in high-temperature semiconductor electronics. Large single crystals of silicon carbide can be grown by the Lely method; they can be cut into gems known as "synthetic moissanite". Silicon carbide with high surface area can be produced from SiO2 contained in plant material.